Brimscombe mill at Brimscombe Port

I took a short detour from my short journey to pick up Helena from her work this afternoon.  I drove along the Golden Valley using the old road half way up the hillside, just above the springline.  I hadn't been along that route for many months and I stopped to photograph Yew Tree farm because the setting sun shining from the far side above Rodborough common made the yellowish Cotswold stone glow brightly.

When I dropped back to the valley bottom I still had a few minutes spare so drove into the site of Brimscombe Port, where the wider Stroudwater canal ended and the Thames and Severn canal began.  The port was a transhipment point between the two sizes of boat, which allowed cargo to move both east and west.  The land around the port basin was subsequently developed to accommodate ship building, foundry and warehouse enterprises including the extension in 1810 of the earlier textile mill. 

I parked on an area where the port’s big basin had been infilled following the canals’ closure in the 1930s and walked to the bridge over the River Frome, whose valley the canal had followed from the point at which it flowed out of the Sapperton Tunnel four miles upstream from here.  The river’s strong flow of water has been a source of power for many mills probably since the Roman period.  Certainly by the 12th century there were many mills between Chalford and Stroud and they were regularly adapted and replaced with bigger mill buildings.  Since the canal's closure the port basin was filled and additional light industrial buildings were constructed as the site developed into a single occupant factory complex with the multi-storey mill building becoming a machine shop.  

Brimscombe Mill is in fine shape now after refurbishment and has various business occupants, although none of course in any way related to the buildings' original purposes.  I always like coming to look at the local mill buildings, their ponds and the manmade conduits used to control the flow of the water.  They are always atmospheric places and I find the sound of the running water and the clean air is very calming.